Races?

[Gideon4God]

Where do the different races of the world come from? 

 

honest question,

Gideon

 

[Ray Cho]

I think the answer to this question is fairly straightforward.  Evolutionists and creationists alike believe that all humans have descended from a common ancestor (according to Genesis, that ancestor was Adam).  The various races on earth today are a result of genetic variation over time, similar to the way we have different breeds of dogs which appear much different from each other but all belong to the same species.  (BTW, I am NOT suggesting that humans should in any way to be compared to dogs.)  Phenotypic variations within any species (skin color, hair color, etc.) are a universal phenomenon.  Of course, there is more to racial identity than just genetic phenotypes -- language, customs, traditions, etc. are also interwoven into the whole sociology of racial groups.

I hope this answer helps.

 

 

[Gideon4God]

thank you for the help. God bless

 

[Late_Cretaceous]

Genetic studies are demonstating that the concept of race is entirely superficial. Those characteristics that make apparent characteristics to skin color, hair texture, height, facial shape, etc. are based on such a small segment of our genes that "race" literally cannot be established by DNA comparison. THere is more genetic variation in asub Saharan African village then the rest of the world combined.

 

[seebs]

L_C, that's a common claim, but it's bad reasoning; the same argument would say that "species" is entirely illusory, since there's so much variance within a species, and so little between species - say, humans and chimps, who have IMMENSE amounts of DNA in common.

The fact is, you can check for racial groups the same way you can check for sickle-cell anemia, or eye color, or skin color, or any of hundreds of other fairly simple traits. Often, the answer is "a bit of everything", but you can check for the traits, they're in the genes, just like everything else.

 

[wildbrumby]

Where do the races come from? From Adam and Eve.

 

[CeCe]

My understanding is that it goes back to Adam through Noah and his 3 sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. I think that it is in Genesis Chapter 10.

 

[HesMyAll]

I think that the different races came about because of the tower of Bable.  When God confused the people's language, they of course had to gather in groups that could understand each other.  These groups probably lived in different areas with the people they were able to communicate with.  This led to the difference in skin color among people.  Those people who lived in warmer climates developed darker skin while those who lived in colder climates developed lighter skin.

 

[notto]

Today at 08:42 PM Hesmyall said this in Post #8

I think that the different races came about because of the tower of Bable.  When God confused the people's language, they of course had to gather in groups that could understand each other.  These groups probably lived in different areas with the people they were able to communicate with.  This led to the difference in skin color among people.  Those people who lived in warmer climates developed darker skin while those who lived in colder climates developed lighter skin.

Although this line of reasoning has been used in the past to suggest the differences in skin color, it isn't a hard and fast rule. Native Americans (both north and south) as well as others show that this is not entirely the case.

Early in the history of European contact with Africa, they assumed that after a certain time, Europeans would begin to have darker skin if their generations lived in Africa and vice versa. This turned out not to be the case and although the differences are due to mutation, it needs to be understood that the evironment did not cause the skin to change color, but mutation would have allowed certain groups to survive better in their environment until the mutation was dominant in the population. This is a minor distinction and I hope I made it clear enough to understand. The mutation has to come first, then natural selection can act on it for survival.

It is also evident that this division happened long ago, before any cultural exchanges had happened, and in order for a mutation such as a different skin color to take hold in an entire population like that of Europe or Africa, that population would have to exist for quite some time, much longer than is allowed by trying to fit it into under 10,000 years. The mutation would start in only one or two individuals, and their descendents would have to be the only survivors of the environment that favored the new mutation (they would be related to all in the population and the mutation would be dominant).

 

[Dale]

If the races came from Adam and Eve, do I understand that Adam was black while Eve was white? Or was it the other way around?

This is going to surprise those who didn’t realize that Creationism is a cover for advocacy of inter-racial marriage.

 

[seebs]

A few creationist sites have tried to make it work by having a very odd representation of genetic material on the ark, but consider that the three sons are all going to have only genetic material from Noah and his wife, so we only have five people's worth of genetic material with which to get all these different groups... It's not very plausible.

 

[IamThatHero]

Yesterday at 08:28 PM seebs said this in Post #11

A few creationist sites have tried to make it work by having a very odd representation of genetic material on the ark, but consider that the three sons are all going to have only genetic material from Noah and his wife, so we only have five people's worth of genetic material with which to get all these different groups... It's not very plausible.

Actually... from personal experiance I can see how siblings who share the same parents (both parents, not just one or the other) can actually look very different.

Take for instance my cousins... I have 4 male cousins who are brothers... the oldest has almost black hair and very mediteranian type dark skin, the second boy is as fair as fair can be and is blonde (still blonde in adulthood as oppsed to blonde children who's hair darkens with age), the third son is dark skinned like the first, but has lighter brown hair, the youngest is not quite as dark as the 1st and third, but not as pale as the 2nd... his hair is dark, but not as dark as the first. (parents are both pale skinned, fahter has black hair, mother has almost black hair).

Then... the oldest cousin has 3 children... the oldest is a girl... darker skin... even darker than her Dad's and she has dark brown hair... the 2nd and 3rd are twins... a boy and a girl... the girl is medium toned like her fathers youngest brother and has almost black hair... the boy is as pale as pale can be and blonde as can be just like his Uncle (the second oldest brother)... my cousins wife is fair skinned and has sandy brown hair.

Also... take in to account Noah's sons wives... who knows what they looked like... maybe one was dark, one was medium and one was fair?

 

[lucaspa]

L_C, that's a common claim, but it's bad reasoning; the same argument would say that "species" is entirely illusory, since there's so much variance within a species, and so little between species - say, humans and chimps, who have IMMENSE amounts of DNA in common.

The fact is, you can check for racial groups the same way you can check for sickle-cell anemia, or eye color, or skin color, or any of hundreds of other fairly simple traits. Often, the answer is "a bit of everything", but you can check for the traits, they're in the genes, just like everything else.

"Races" as commonly used today is illusory. You can't find the characteristics commonly associated with, say, the Negroid race only in Negroes. That is you, you can find populations with dark skin but straight hair, even blond hair and dark skin.

There are no 'races', but there are populations of humans. You can speak of those and the associated clustering of some alleles of genes. However, the clustering of is never absolute and therefore you never have an absolutely clear demarcation of populations. There is simply too much gene flow between populations (in general) -- translate "gene flow" as "making babies" -- for populations to be absolute.

 

[lucaspa]

Where do the different races of the world come from? 

 

honest question,

Gideon

They come from diversification from the original small population of H. sapiens in Africa. Descent with modification, in other words. It's a combination of sexual and environmental directional selection.

However, some creationists have claimed that different races were different creations, usually with only the Caucasians being truly human.

There is also a creationist theory that dark-skinned people are descended from Canaan, who was marked this way for his transgression.

 

[Crusadar]

Don't you just love fairy tales? Tell me another story please!

 

[JohnR7]

Don't you just love fairy tales? Tell me another story please!

Like the story about how Cain married his sister? What did she do to get thrown out of Eden?

 

[Edouard]

Races: We all are supposedly descendants of Adam then to Noah, then to Abraham. However, there was some bit of discussion in the old testement about angels among men.. mentioned briefly. Do we remember the tower of Babel?
when God spread mankind all over the earth and confused their tongues. This is when languages shall we say evolved even more, and mankind spread all over the earth.
Think about this logically, where is it hot, you usually find dark skinned people. where it tends to gte cold you fin light skinned people and so forth.
interesting thought?_ I believe the color of our skin has to do with where we were originally from. for example I am anglo saxon, half of my family is from wales the other half from lower germany. now only one flaw, what bout eskimo's and the tribe in antartica, they i believe are of an asian descent.

just a thought,.
Edouard

 

[wblastyn]

Do we remember the tower of Babel?

It just says the languages were confused, it says nothing about people having different skin colours, etc.

Think about this logically, where is it hot, you usually find dark skinned people. where it tends to gte cold you fin light skinned people and so forth.

Right, that is evolution, skin colour is an adaptation. In hot countries the people there have darker skin because they need more melanin to protect them from the sun.

 

[JohnR7]

Where do the races come from? From Adam and Eve.

And what races would that be? Black, white and everyone else? Making a total of three races? The problem with the theory of race is that there is no way to determine what race someone belongs to.

I am of English decent, my wife is from the Philippines. But when people try to guess at what we are, they come up with all sorts of wild things. I had one women ask is she was my sister, I had another women ask if we were from Mexico. Most people would not even try to guess at it.

 

[pudmuddle]

If the races came from Adam and Eve, do I understand that Adam was black while Eve was white? Or was it the other way around?

This is going to surprise those who didn’t realize that Creationism is a cover for advocacy of inter-racial marriage.

Lol--I'm a creationist and I don't have a problem with it
But why would it be so hard for God to give them the genes to produce varied races of offspring? And before ya'll shout evolution, I have no problem with adaptation, only macroevolution.
They had to have a different gene structure to intermarry (within familys) without causing problems for the kids. My personal veiw is that they were different then us in a lot of ways, and in fact, "neandrathal skulls" were just the skulls of humans who aged veeeeeerrrrry slowly. But I wasn't there, so can't say for sure.